Reporters rally for Jill
The small community of reporters in Baghdad (shrinking by the month) has pulled together around the kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll in a way I have not seen here before. It could be because she’s friendly, always smiling, or because we respect her ambition - young and gutsy…but I think it’s mainly because she was alone and vulnerable.
Two years ago, Baghdad was awash with freelancer reporters, documentary filmmakers, aid workers, businessmen on the make and peace activists. They made our normally dreary lives here in Baghdad a bit more fun. They liked to go out and were much more social than the cynical hacks who’ve been here a long time.
But over the last year, the free-spirited independents have gradually stopped coming for two related reasons: 1) Iraq has become too dangerous and 2) because of the dangers, reporting here has become very expensive, with armored cars, bodyguards and chase cars now de-rigueur.
Jill - with her brightly dyed hair (she told me on New Year’s Eve the color was "candy apple red") and big plans (she wanted to learn Arabic and write "the definitive book on Iraq") - is one of the remaining freelancers few still here, covering Iraq on the cheap, borrowing safety equipment like flak jackets, and traveling without backup. Like many print reporters, she thought she could move around unnoticed; she was wrong.
When news of her kidnapping broke here on Saturday morning, reporters in Baghdad mobilized. I was proud to see how so many of my colleagues sprung into action.
Many reporters (including those at the NBC News bureau) stopped nearly all of their regular responsibilities and tried to find out what we could about Jill, sending staff to the scene, and working contacts in the U.S. military and embassy. We helped keep the story quiet – an act of self-policing we ultimately lost.
But the effort is not over, and some reporters are still working the phones, and "pinging" contacts to try to find out what we can about Jill. Because although she was more exposed than most, at some level we know that one day this could happen to any one of us.
Many wounds to heal 
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